BRAZIL’S football boss Joao Havelange needed a coach who could prove that the chaos and complacency of the 1966 World Cup hadn’t yet destroyed Brazil’s reputation. He wondered who could bring new impetus, rebuild the team, navigate the World Cup qualifiers and, above all, satisfy the fans? 

Enter Joao Saldanha, a gloriously authentic personality, whose reign was a wonderful spectacle. Saldanha was a bohemian, communist, coach, journalist and dialectician. His mere presence incited intrigue, political plotting and subterfuge from the CBD, the press and the military, perhaps all the way up to the highest office, that of President Medici. His successes matched his failures and his virtues his flaws. His spats, feuds, cliques, rivalries and total disregard for the political hierarchy led to his own fall. 

His personality and tenure with the national team remain shrouded in mystery, even to those who were closest to him. Tostao summed it up: “I adored him as a person. He was emotional and a humanist. He was a dreamer. He was the total opposite of what the establishment wanted of a coach but, on the other hand, he was popular. The CBD and the government wanted to charm. In truth, it was something half schizophrenic, with various sides [to the story], opaque and contradictory. You simply can’t make a logical, correct analysis of his downfall.”